right now is this works when I think about her.”
“Then,” Josie said, pressing closer, “it’s about her body. It’s got nothing to do with her as a person.”
“Fuck.” She was probably right.
“What about me?” she asked, placing her hand on my thigh.
“You?”
Josie was a stunner, real put together. Of course, I’d thought about her and felt something, but after ten years of lusting after Monica Miller—a woman who almost had her half-sister, Ren, beaten and abused because of her own unrequited love story—I didn’t know how to move on. Wanting Coach Miller’s daughter was a habit I couldn’t let go of even with the blonde siren sitting beside me.
Josie bit her bottom lip and moved to straddle me. Her ass settled into my lap while her arms circled my shoulders. After our borderline sexual workout session, I was amped up, and from the look on her face, she felt just how amped I really was.
She smelt real fuckin’ good. A little sweaty but mostly like the sweet and spicy perfume she wore.
“She doesn’t even look at you,” she whispered, rubbing the sweet spot between her legs against my cock. “I’m looking. I’ve always looked.”
“Josie—”
She lowered her lips toward mine, making it perfectly clear what she wanted, but my mind was spinning. She’d dumped Hamish at the wedding and immediately pulled me onto the dance floor… Then it slammed into me, and I wasn’t sure if it was the truth or if it was my cock talking. She’d dumped Hamish for me. I didn’t want her to do that…did I?
Her lips were an inch from claiming mine, and she almost had me when I jerked away.
“I’m not asking you to marry me,” she snapped, pulling back.
I knew what I wanted. I wanted to fuck her, but Josie wasn’t the kind of woman who deserved that shit. If I fucked her now, then it’d ruin everything. She’d leave when it all fell apart because of my messed-up head, and Linc would have my balls in a vice. This wasn’t what he meant when he’d implied I needed to treat her better. We needed her here with us.
“Monica Miller is a vapid excuse for a human being,” she exclaimed. “She doesn’t see you, Dean. She doesn’t see what a great guy you are. Fuck, you’re so stupid .”
She climbed off my lap and stalked across the room, grabbing her bag and snatching her towel from over the arm of the treadmill, and all I could do was sit there and watch her. I was stuck to the spot, my cock hard and my pride hurt.
“I’m working off-site today,” she snapped, not even looking at me as she put her trainers back on. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be on the mobile.”
“Josie,” I began, but I didn’t have any words to follow it up with.
She didn’t even acknowledge me as she strode across the gym, and a moment later, the door slammed shut.
Was I being noble or making the biggest mistake of my life? Without even understanding what I’d done, I’d just made things a whole lot worse. That hit to the head must’ve done more damage than I first thought.
I was such a mess.
9
Josie
I couldn’t remember the last time I cried over a man.
He’d pushed me away, and it was all the proof I needed. Dean Hayes didn’t feel a single thing for me.
All I ever wanted was to be loved by a strong man. Maybe that was the only reason I’d latched onto him in the absence of Hamish.
I thought about all the little signals I’d been getting from Dean since the wedding and began to feel foolish. I’d blown them all out of proportion. I’d wanted to love someone so much I’d twisted his actions into what I wanted to see.
God, I was such a stupid woman. Dean was smart for the first time in his life when he’d pushed me away. He was smart, and I was dumb.
Was I heartbroken or embarrassed?
I didn’t know what drove me to get on a plane and fly to Melbourne without telling anyone, but I did, and that’s where I was—standing in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel in the city with my little
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